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Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Welcome to Farmer's Market Week! One of my absolute favorite things to do in the summer is take a trip to the local farms and grab up some of the fresh local produce and wares.
This particular trip yielded me fresh parsley and basil, beautiful heirloom tomatoes and a locally baked loaf of marble rye bread, along with zucchini, eggplant and carrots which you'll see pop up in my other posts throughout the week.
The first thing I did was turn the amazing herbs into Parsley Pesto. Pesto has so many uses, you can toss it with potatoes, pasta, use it as sauce for pizza. I decided to use some of it to make the ultimate summer grilled cheese.
I spread a nice layer on the marble rye bread, making sure to get it all the way to the edges.
Then I topped it with slices of mozzarella and provolone cheese, alternating them and overlapping them slightly.
Next up, lay on slices of beautiful heirloom tomatoes.
Carefully place the top half onto the bottom. You seriously could eat it just like this but I wanted melty cheese.
Butter the bread and then gently lay the sandwiches butter side down onto a griddle pan heated to medium. Butter the top sides. Cook until golden brown on the bottom, flip and cook until golden brown on top.
I set up a few shots inside but it just was not giving the summer vibe I wanted so I grabbed my plate and headed out to the deck.
Oh yeah! If that doesn't scream summer I just don't know what does!
One more shot of the gorgeous golden brown and delicious bread. You definitely want to choose a loaf that has some body to it in order to hold all that yumminess together.
Be sure to check back Wednesday and Friday to see how I used the rest of my haul. Thank you to all the other amazing bloggers for joining me for #FarmersMarketWeek, be sure to visit their sites using the links down below!
Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal
Ingredients
8 slices marble rye bread
3 to 4 tablespoons prepared pesto
4 slices each provolone and mozzarella cheese.
8 slices heirloom tomato
1/4 cup butter, softened
Instructions
Spread four slices of bread with pesto. Layer with cheese and tomato; top with remaining bread. Butter outsides of sandwiches.
In a large skillet over medium heat, toast sandwiches until golden brown and cheese is melted, 2-3 minutes on each side.
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Caprese sandwiches are a go to around here during tomato season. Loving this recipe.
ReplyDeleteThe photo out on the deck really was a great move Jolene! I'd love to hang out there enjoying one of these sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteI mean, does it get any better than this? And, bonus points for using rye bread...YUM!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great sandwich! I love a good grilled cheese and you kicked this one way up there! I love any type of rye bread!
ReplyDeleteI am up for pesto mozarella and tomato sandwich any time of the day.
ReplyDeletePesto is a genius ad to grilled cheese!
ReplyDeleteIt's like a rainbow in a sandwich! You know it's going to be packed with flavor because of all those colors.
ReplyDeleteI sent this to my daughter and she is going to try making her own pesto! I get to benefit. Thanks for the inspiration! 😀
ReplyDelete